“Oct 20, 2009 2:42 PM · People had beaten up two youths, who had allegedly abducted and raped a girl aged three years, and handed the duo over to police.

The incident had taken place in Bandaragama in the early hours of yesterday morning (Oct. 19).

The suspects had entered a house, snatched the sleeping little girl from her mother and taken her to a nearby well, where they had continually raped her.

Her father had been away at his workplace, and only the mother and the grandmother had been at home at the time, Moragahahena Police said.

Waking up, the mother had found the girl missing, and with the help of people of the area, had searched for and found her near the well.

The suspects aged 23 and 24 years – one of them a father of one – are said to be drug and alcohol peddlers.

They had also robbed the mobile phone of the girl’s mother.

It happened in New Orleans after Katrina hit the town and
people were living in that Dome. Rape was committed in
Northern Australia (Darwin) when cyclone Tracey hit that town. This was committed by soldiers who was sent
there to help the locals.

What about all those girls sent by the LTTE as suicide
bombers. Is it because their lives were cheaper and
dispensable. Why didn’t diaspora open their big mouths
when scores of girls were sent to the front line while
VP and his little angels were swimming in a prestine
pool. Serves them right to end up in a mud pool. LTTE treated their own tamil girls like phoo.
At least now those girls can look forward for a future.

Further, what about in Tamil Nadhu when a girl is born,
some people choke them to death by putting too much
rice in their mouths. I saw this story when I was in
Australia in 60 minutes programme. I am highlighting
these facts to show everyone how tamil community
treat their own women.

1. “If the victims were all “Sinhala” there would have been a greater outcry.” – I donot disagree with you. This too is racist and I think we should not promote this.

2. “You are best advised to do nit-picking on headings elsewhere. For starters there are English newspapers that report according to ethnicity…”
Again, I agree with you.
Once I wrote an email to Daily Mirror copying how DM & Lankadeepa reported the same news report from the two ends of the racial spectrum. but nothing happened.

Unfortunately only you takes time to publish the reader comments and then explain your stance. Most opt to just ignore.

3. I would have expected a person of your calibre to be concerned about the climate of impunity that allows such crimes against members of a minority community.

We are all concerned about the cliamte of inpunity. I never said these atrocities didn’t happen. or they are justified. I am merely highlighitng something else. After all would any of us know if the Army didnt rape any Sinhala women in the 89-90 period? So if the report said “there have been numerous reports of the rape and assault of sri lankan women by Army personnel, most of whome are Tamils, wouldnt it be more balanced?”

5. But the actuality is that the IDP’s are all Tamils.. – Is this true? Are’nt there Muslims also amoung the IDPs?

6. Yu are writing this blog and we are reading this for the same reason. Because we want to change things. So I choose to ignore the rude and confrontational language.

All I am saying is that if we want Sri Lanka to prosper and be the place we want it to be, I have to put my ‘sinhalaness’ and a Tamil his/her Tmailness in the backburner and maybe eventually completely remove from the rational thinking spectrum.

It can come out when I want to sing, dance or read a book.

DBSJ RESPONDS:

I am sorry for the tone of my response.

Much as I would like to put away ethnic consciousness and evolve a Sri Lankan identity the reality is different. As long as minority community people are being victimised on grounds of their ethnicity and the notion that the Sinhala “Majority” has greater rights to the Country prevails there can be no true nation building

Only a genuine process of reconciliation based on justice and equality can result in TRUE unity and amity

Totalitarian rule won’t last for long! History will repeat one day.
This is my reply to kalujaka on behalf of Rajaratnam .

one of the best analysis i have read so far. you have in a nutshell analysed the past well and predicting the future too, quite well.

“Your argument is, Tamils were brutalised and therefore armed struggle is justified. In that case why haven’t the other minorities like the Burgers, Malay’s, Muslims and Estate Tamils taken up to terror? How did it start with the comparatively well off Jaffna Tamils?”

UGK is correct that Tamils- not Burghers or Muslims- faced violence from 1956 through 1983, although this violence did not occur on a regular or systematic basis. Before 1983, most Jaffna Tamil youth were not involved in militancy. The LTTE only had 30 members as DBS pointed out.

The 1983 violence changed all that with the murder of thousands of Tamils and the displacement of tens of thousands more to foreign countries where they became the LTTE’s financial bedrock. As a Sinhala I have to say that I can understand the rise of the LTTE and Tamil armed struggle as the result of 1983, NOT simply due to the LTTE’s ability to terrorize Tamils which came later.

Tamil armed struggle, whether justified or not by anti-Tamil violence, later degenerated into intracommunity violence where Tamils murdered Tamils. This seems to be the part that UGK does not understand. The Tamils today are a ruined people because of the LTTE. They have no leaders today because the LTTE killed or silenced them all. The LTTE arranged things so that if it were to fall, it would drag the rest of the Tamils too.

Today the government appears to be adopting LTTE-like mannerisms and Mahinda is becoming elevated to “Thalaivar” status. Anyone criticizing the Rajapakses is a traitor. If things don’t change then we’ll end up the same as the Tamils, and we won’t have anyone to blame but ourselves.

You want to know whether 74 and 76 (K. Rajaratnam)
is K M P Rajaratna.

Do you know about K M P Rajaratna ?. He was one of the
extreme racist Sinhala politicians we ever had. He was the
MP for Welimada seat, and if I can remember well, he
belonged to MEP political party.

I would not like to repeat here what he used to say at
public meetings about Tamils. It was that bad.
However, some people at that time were so naive
and racist, they applauded him

I wonder whether DBSJ remember or knows what
he used to say at public meetings.

K M P Rajaratna belongs to the same category as
Cyril Mathew. Both these guys fuelled racism in SL.

If by pointing out the greater problem of large scale sexual abuse of women and children (of all races) in Sri Lanka, I am thereby trivializing the rape of Tamils, then yes, I am guilty. However, if you are so narrow-minded as to think that the rape of Tamils is somehow more important than the rape of other women and children, then you may decide for yourself what that makes you — it’s pretty clear to me.

My point is that it’s very easy to point to the Army, or the TMVP, or the LTTE and make them scapegoats, but that fails to address the root cause. Remember, it is our own society that created all three of the aforementioned entities. They are us, and not aliens from another planet.

This does not absolve those criminal individuals of guilt — they must be brought to justice. Butt it is downright stupid to blame the organization these people belong to if you are unwilling to blame the society they are drawn from.

Many of you are criticizing and attacking me without understanding the difference between rationalizing and excusing. We rationalize criminal behaviour in order to understand it and prevent it in the future. It’s quite different to excusing it.

First understand what you are arguing about before you hit that keyboard.